Red Regent

Just to illustrate (or Photoshop) the point....
http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/sgt-peppers-style-homage-to-celebrity-deaths-of-2016-runs-out-of-space/
‘Sgt. Pepper’s’-style homage to celebrity deaths of 2016 runs out of space

Ya'lright dude?

There's a bit of irony to Christmas today; a lot of people have been saying that this year's Christmas season feels "the least Christmas-y ever", and yet this is the year with the most heartfelt greetings and well-wishes of all the ones I've experienced.

Goes to show you the holiday isn't bound to the day or the reason of celebration but to the people that want to celebrate it.
Once again, Merry Christmas to all stations.

There's a bit of irony to Christmas today; a lot of people have been saying that this year's Christmas season feels "the least Christmas-y ever", and yet this is the year with the most heartfelt greetings and well-wishes of all the ones I've experienced.

Goes to show you the holiday isn't bound to the day or the reason of celebration but to the people that want to celebrate it.
Once again, Merry Christmas to all stations.

TL;DR: I'm sad because there's too much politics in all the media I consume now.
I'm a media consumer, we all are, we have our likes and dislikes and so forth. Most of the content-creators I follow at least try to stay out of politics or if they have to deal with these issues at least approach them in a neutral perspective. The only problem is, is that with the build-up and fallout over the 2016 election (the US one) more and more of my favorite content creators have been making more and more politically charged content, which is sometimes fine, but more often than not I find myself disapproving of because they decide to paint and demonize their opponents in one way or another, or at worst create a review stating "Maybe we should consider our opponent's perspective." while still demonizing them in an act of blatant hypocrisy.

Guys, as a foreign (to most of you) guy who is sick and tired of non-stop coverage of the election from foreign and local news and have references to it in basically any other media he consumed, I find it unbelievably tiring to find all that in the one place I never wanted to see it.

Regent: Gonna pass on that, it's an effective strategy for sure but waaaay too damaging to the environment.
Celia: [muttering] You fail to mention that instance where you fished in such a manner and angered a local Aboleth and the innocent yet provoked creature switched our bodies...
Regent: Don't remind me. Though to be fair I guess that's what you get when you go on a camping trip to "Lake Dialogo" after having relationship problems.
Celia: I attempted to persuade you of the lake's magical properties but you did not wish to listen!
Regent: And to be fair we still ended up talking about our problems in the end...
Celia: ...yes I think we were both wrong and right... wait, is this that cat conundrum again?
Regent: You mean Schrodinger? No, not quite.

Regent: Then again that meant your priestess had a wicked right hook! ZING!
Celia: *facepalm*

Welcome the Looney "It's not Christmas yet" rant.  Given that I'm not on Facebook right now, I'm not going to get as many times to use it as normal, so you get it today...

Maybe it's because they are Christians that belong to and follow a liturgical tradition?  We are in "Advent" right now.  The colors you should be showing are not Red and Green, but Purple and White1.  You should not be playing Christmas carols, but Advent hymns.   Here is a nice list from an Anglican/Episcopal point of view.  You can, of course, use the 1st 3 scenes of Handel's Messiah as well.
1Other than the 3rd Sunday in Advent, Dec 11th2 this year, when the colors are Pink and White
2Unrelated fun fact, my birthday.

Regent: Oh no... [slides off into existential dread with appropriate music]
Celia: *slaps Regent* As you would say, "snap out of it!"
Regent: gah fahdishideh... Oh boy did i need that. I was think about that one time where I accidentally deleted gravity... I still have the nightmares.
Celia: You have not told me of such a misadventure.
Regent: One of those "You don't want to know" things, love. Also where have you been?
Celia: Fighting hundreds of princesses and getting the win back. Is anyone still fighting for this?

Where were you anyway? Were you on some kind of crusade against some kind of evil? I was on one, we fought an enemy called "The Thesis" and after 7 months of near-constant warfare I and my two other companions slayed it with lots of stabbing and citations.

Where were you anyway? Were you on some kind of crusade against some kind of evil? I was on one, we fought an enemy called "The Thesis" and after 7 months of near-constant warfare I and my two other companions slayed it with lots of stabbing and citations.

Big talk from the man who thinks that a pyramid scheme is a proper way to arrange a burial.

Yes, I remain within the realm of the living.
 
And I remembered to come back before the end of the year. Go me.

TL;DR: An innocuous post regarding people and our interactions with others put one of my friends into a state of existential dread.

Longer version:
I have two friends, JM, and L, JM gets tagged in a post about asking what does he remember about person X. JM responds and reposts the thing and he gets a fair number of responses as well. I got tagged so I reposted too and got a modest response from my other friends to and I though might as well tag a few others as well. When it got to my buddy L, that's when things started to go wrong. JM and I posted our best memories with the guy, then we waited to see more...
I'ts been 6 hours and nobody else has posted anything yet.
See L has an inferiority complex (won't get into too much detail, let's just say he had a rough childhood) and really wants to be a big name achiever in life so he didn't take that response (or lack thereof) very well. I'm currently talking to him right now but let's just say he's starting to sound like one of those annoying stereotypical emo archetypes you see in basically any given anime. I say that but I don't mean to be dismissive about him or his plight (he is my buddy after all) but you know that difficult process where you want to convince someone everything will be alright while they're going through a really dark period of their life? Yeah, L's about 10 feet away from that sort of outlook.

You know I have a thing for Filipiniana (Filipino culture pieces) and I constantly bemoan how tragically lacking the internet (and by extension, ignorantly, the world) is when it comes to finding them.
I was gladly proven wrong by one of my former Professors from University when I asked her for help regarding my current course called "Understanding Filipino Art and Culture"; she gave me a gold mine of information of art and literature resources including a Government-Funded 9 volume comprehensive encyclopedia on Filipino Art; and each book is at least 4 inches, but what really made me happy was that the 9th book in that encyclopedia on literature was 5.5-6 inches thick covering over a thousand years of literary history that somehow managed to survive long enough to be written down. I could only rifle through the books for a few minutes each but that was enough to find 15 new documentaries, books, and commentaries on music and literature.
So many resources, so much culture preserved. After 3 years of scouring the internet for obscure and hardly verifiable sources I can't be any happier; I was crying while reading everything up from mythology to ghost stories.

You know I have a thing for Filipiniana (Filipino culture pieces) and I constantly bemoan how tragically lacking the internet (and by extension, ignorantly, the world) is when it comes to finding them.
I was gladly proven wrong by one of my former Professors from University when I asked her for help regarding my current course called "Understanding Filipino Art and Culture"; she gave me a gold mine of information of art and literature resources including a Government-Funded 9 volume comprehensive encyclopedia on Filipino Art; and each book is at least 4 inches, but what really made me happy was that the 9th book in that encyclopedia on literature was 5.5-6 inches thick covering over a thousand years of literary history that somehow managed to survive long enough to be written down. I could only rifle through the books for a few minutes each but that was enough to find 15 new documentaries, books, and commentaries on music and literature.
So many resources, so much culture preserved. After 3 years of scouring the internet for obscure and hardly verifiable sources I can't be any happier; I was crying while reading everything up from mythology to ghost stories.

Regent: Wait what the actual what?! Lyre's back?! YES! YEEEES!
Celia: Who's that?
Regent: Old friend of mine from way back when; back again! YAAAAY!
*PlotHole plops open*
The Old Guard: Hey Lyre! I'm a retired character now, your boy's Regent's taken over for me, go talk to him if you like. Welcome back!

Sorry I've been out of touch for the last month.
A lot of little problems just got in the way of getting my internet connextion fixed.  And I'm still not reliably back yet.
Anyhow, I saw a sign in the restaurant that seemed appropriate.
"All our customers make us happy.
Some make us happy when they enter.
Some make us happy when they leave."
 
I hope I'm still in the "happy when they enter" group.

The not really Blue Oyster Cult album "Imaginos1"



1Why it's not really a Blue Oyster Cult album, despite having all the original members and was produced by their normal producer is a detail for fan boys only.

I am sorry to hear. It is hard to lose a beloved teacher, especially one who managed to touch your life and give you gifts of learning that will follow you the rest of your life. I hope he will find peace.

Eh. I'm not really ashamed. It was rather fun. I just wish more people joined in than just us two, ya know? Hack, Lyre... Heck, even Trisha would've been someone else.
Also kinda regret not stating at some point that one of my characters was a Pokemon Trainer. Made combat scenes a little awkward.
I also learned that I'm not a very good GM, at least in forum post format, once it was my turn.
 
What kind of program? Is it a calculator program?
Oh, am I winning now?

Three quarters of a century ago, the Nazis, the Gestapo and all its odious apparatus overran my homeland Denmark. Ignoring peace treaties and all civilised decency they stripped my home of its freedom and independence, reduced it to a mere cog in their war machine, a stepping stone for its conquest of Norway. As time passed, they gradually tightened the screws, taking away all our own mechanisms of government, arresting and imprisoning our police force and eventually inflicting their merciless acts of genocide on Danish homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled, Jews -- anyone that did not meet their nightmarish ideals of Aryan perfection. My family had to flee to Sweden to survive and not everyone made it to safety. Of those that did not, few survived, none of them unmarked.
But the darkness that had fallen across Europe did not last. Eventually a restless giant stirred in its sleep, awoke, and rose to come to the rescue of the Old World. Many nations fought the evils of the Nazis. Of those, few brought as much, sacrificed as much as America did.
That war is long gone now, but I have not forgotten. I and my family directly owe our lives, home and freedom to America and her people. To the soldiers who fought so long and hard, to the working men and women in the factories, to the ordinary people who made the marvelous industry of the giant work and run when it was needed the most. To fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters who sacrificed so much, lost so many they loved. To all of America's people, whatever race or creed, for all of them paid for that war, for that freedom I now have today.
Many years have passed since then. America has changed, since. Grown, and suffered growing pains. She is not perfect and never has been, but she still struggles to improve and make herself better. And precisely this is why America is great: because she always tries to be better.
I will give the last word to my father, who feels this debt as keenly as I do. He is certain that whatever troubles America is enduring she will in the fullness of time rise above them -- because Americans are their own harshest critics, because they cannot rest while they believe injustice reigns.
It has been so for two and a half centuries. And that much, at least, has not changed.
And so, in this dark time of vitriol and partisanship and division, do not forget your roots. America IS great. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.
I believe in you. Thank you all.

Why not both.

Earlier today I was buying food from a store, and on my way back I was watching this girl, probably around 7 or so, playing with her pet duck. Somehow the young lady taught the thing how to do an odd waddling dance, and fly up and nestle on her shoulder like a a parrot would. Kudos to the kid, she's good with birds apparently.

Earlier today I was buying food from a store, and on my way back I was watching this girl, probably around 7 or so, playing with her pet duck. Somehow the young lady taught the thing how to do an odd waddling dance, and fly up and nestle on her shoulder like a a parrot would. Kudos to the kid, she's good with birds apparently.